Drunk Driving

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One in Five Violation Rate Not Acceptable, Pennsylvania Truck Accident Lawyer Says

Scranton, PA, September 08, 2012 — Truck accident attorney Marion Munley said today that national inspections of 74,072 trucks and buses that resulted in one-fifth of the vehicles being removed from the road should raise concerns for the sponsoring Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA).

The CVSA said in a recent news release that its 25th Annual Roadcheck, a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) safety enforcement and outreach event, inspected a record number of trucks and buses.

The organization said 22.4 percent of CMVs and 3.9 percent of drivers were placed out of service, or removed from the road, after the inspections. The CVSA said those vehicle and driver OOS rates represented the second-lowest in the program’s history.

Munley, a nationally recognized Pennsylvania truck accident lawyer with the Scranton personal injury firm of Munley Law, said those numbers were still too high.

“It’s certainly a concern when one in five of the tractor-trailers and other big-rig trucks that trucking companies continue to put on the road are in such poor shape that they should be removed from the road before they cause an accident,” she said. […]

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CPSC Reports “Button Battery” Injuries Increasing

Earlier this year we presented information regarding the dangers of children swallowing “button batteries.”  Now, according to a new report from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the number of children injured by batteries is growing.  Since 1998 the number of children treated for ingesting the batteries has increased 2.5-fold, from 1,900 in 1998 to 4,800 in 2010.  Thirteen children died from ingesting batteries from 2002 to 2010, compared to one in 1998.

The CPSC analyzed data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. The researchers found an estimated 40,400 children younger than 13-years-old were treated in hospital emergency departments for battery-related injuries, including confirmed or possible battery ingestions, between 1997 and 2010. Nearly three quarters of the injuries involved children less than 4-years-old.

The CPSC urges the electronics industry and battery manufacturers to develop warnings and industry standards to prevent serious injuries and deaths from button batteries.  […]

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Pennsylvania Anti-Texting Law Difficult to Enforce

Earlier this week we reported on AT&T’s push to stop drivers from texting when behind the wheel.  Statistics show texting drivers are 23 times more likely to be in an accident. Even though 39 states, including Pennsylvania, have an anti-texting law, still more than 100,000 crashes a year involve drivers who are texting.  Unfortunately, according to the Scranton chief of police, enforcing Pennsylvania’s law is challenging.

In March, Pennsylvania’s anti-texting law went into effect making texting-while-driving a primary offense.  PA law enforcement can stop and ticket a driver for texting and driving now, without any other violation.

However, an article in the Times-Tribune reports that according to Carl Graziano, acting police chief of the Scranton Police Department, since talking on the cellphone or searching for contacts in the phone are still legal, “It’s difficult for an officer to discern whether they’re [drivers] texting or looking up numbers on their phone.” […]

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Pennsylvania Drivers Near Bottom of the List of Safest Drivers

Allstate, the nation’s largest publicly held personal lines insurer, released the results of its 2012 “Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report.” The report ranks America’s 200 largest cities according to car collision frequency in an effort to identify America’s safest drivers.

According to the report, Americans, on average, are in an accident every 10 years. Sioux Falls, South Dakota holds the honor as the city with the safest drivers for the fifth time – the report has been conducted for eight years.  Sioux Falls drivers average an accident once every 13.8 years.

Pittsburgh is ranked 168th on the list with drivers averaging an accident every 7.5 years. Philadelphia is just 10 spots from the bottom, at 190, with drivers averaging an accident every 6.1 years. This is 64.1% higher than the national average.

Allstate’s Best Driver’s Report was created to boost the country’s discussion on safe driving. […]

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AT&T Calls on All Drivers to Take its Never Text and Drive Pledge

AT&T stresses danger of distracted driving with its anti-texting while driving campaign

As Labor Day weekend comes to a close, so too does the state’s Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign.  However, the Pennsylvania State Police is on the lookout for drunk drivers 365-days-a-year.  The police are also focused on stopping distracted drivers from taking to the PA highways.  Now, AT&T is helping all law enforcement by raising the bar on its anti-texting campaign.  AT&T is warning of the serious dangers caused by texting and driving and is urging all drivers to take its “Never Text and Drive” pledge.

AT&T’s message is simple: “When it comes to texting and driving, it can wait.” On its website, AT&T presents the pledge as follows:

No text message, email, website or video is worth the risk of endangering my life or the lives of others on the road. […]